I received a phone call this morning that an old high school friend of mine was killed in a tree-stand accident. He was wearing a safety belt, not a harness. He either slipped or the climbing stand he was using slipped. Regardless, he fell out of the stand and ended up being asphixiated by the belt. A neighbor heard something strange coming from the timber and went to investigate. By the time he returned with a ladder and fire rescue, it was too late to save my friend.

For those of you tree stand hunters, please be careful out there! It doesn't pay to skimp on your safety equipment! This is the second friend of mine who has fallen, the first one was lucky to come away with a shattered pelvis, broken leg, arm, and numerous ribs but lived to hunt again...

For those of you tree stand hunters, please be careful out there!


Excellent advice. A friend of mine who I served with in the Marines in Vietnam, returned home and a few years later fell from his tree stand while deer hunting. He broke his neck and has been a paraplegic ever since. You can't be too careful out there.

I'm so sorry to hear about your friend.... Thanks for thinking of others and passing this along in a time of sorrow...

Scott

For those of you tree stand hunters, please be careful out there! It doesn't pay to skimp on your safety equipment! This is the second friend of mine who has fallen, the first one was lucky to come away with a shattered pelvis, broken leg, arm, and numerous ribs but lived to hunt again...

I agree! Good advise. :thumbsup:
Probably been 25 years but I fell out of a wooden platform tree stand TWICE in one day! :(
The bright warm sunny winter day along with the peaceful sounds of the woods and multi layers of clothes made me fall asleep.
Luckily there was 3 feet of fresh snow on the ground.
Went back to the cabin after the second fall...ain't been up in one since.

Hey Gary,
Thanks for your service in Vietnam and welcome home!!
Hey Dana, thanks for the ride on your thread.

Marc

I'm not a fan of tree stand hunting, but for different reasons.

I'm not a fan of tree stand hunting, but for different reasons.

Please elaborate!!!!!

Hunting can be great sport, but also dangerous for reasons many of us never anticipate. Sorry to hear about the fellow falling and getting hung up on his harness, what a shame. I had a friend once who hunted from tree stands (I never liked them, usually just found a large rock to get on) plus he hated being cold, so he took a coffee can, used a nail to make some holes in it, added a wire handle and put charcoal in it, he was so proud of his heater invention, thought we all should have them. Yep, you guessed it, he caught his dumb a _ _ on fire standing too close to it, then as he danced around trying to put out his flaming trouser legs he fell off the stand and broke his arm. I was a distance away, but I clearly heard him shreiking when he first caught fire, so I went over to see what was wrong. He told me what happened, and when I finally stopped laughing I got him out to the road, into my truck and took him to the ER (yeah, they laughed at him too). Could have been worse though, I'm glad he wasn't hurt more seriously or killed, but you need to be careful out there. At least his gun didn't go off when he fell with it.

Jeff

Hunting can be great sport, but also dangerous for reasons many of us never anticipate. Sorry to hear about the fellow falling and getting hung up on his harness, what a shame. I had a friend once who hunted from tree stands (I never liked them, usually just found a large rock to get on) plus he hated being cold, so he took a coffee can, used a nail to make some holes in it, added a wire handle and put charcoal in it, he was so proud of his heater invention, thought we all should have them. Yep, you guessed it, he caught his dumb a _ _ on fire standing too close to it, then as he danced around trying to put out his flaming trouser legs he fell off the stand and broke his arm. I was a distance away, but I clearly heard him shreiking when he first caught fire, so I went over to see what was wrong. He told me what happened, and when I finally stopped laughing I got him out to the road, into my truck and took him to the ER (yeah, they laughed at him too). Could have been worse though, I'm glad he wasn't hurt more seriously or killed, but you need to be careful out there. At least his gun didn't go off when he fell with it.

Jeff


Oh, I almost forgot, he was hunched down over the heat pot with it between his legs, so you can guess where the fire started and why it was so darn funny...

great advise, im very sorry to hear that he died.

Sorry to hear about that. Good to be reminded that safety is much more important than getting even the best buck. Its easy to lose sight of that.

sorry to hear that

ive seen it happen before. I live in one of the biggest deer hunting areas in the country(we have one of the higher b&c averages in the us) and this happens all the time

i watched a friend of mine fall asleep and fall out of his stand, luckily there was a thick coating of recent dust snow on the ground and he just got up and laughed, it is no laughing matter. since then i have not gotten in a treestand

i`ll take a blind over a stand anyday!

Please elaborate!!!!!
There was a guy, back here in the woods, who put half a million worth of old silver security notes in a bag and "hid" it way up a tree in a makeshift stand. Some slob hunter came along, stole the bag, poached some deer (guess he found the gut piles) and took a dump at the base of the tree. Ya gotta wonder, what kind of jerk would take a dump by a perfectly good tree stand?

Who in the world hides their money in a tree? I bury mine in cans in the yard.